The trouble with Statistics Canada’s solar and wind energy data

“Is Ontario generating less electricity from solar panels and wind turbines than it did years ago, despite billions in subsidies to the renewable energy sector?”

Peter Kuitenbrouwer — Financial Post — January 14, 2016

TORONTO • Is Ontario generating less electricity from solar panels and wind turbines than it did years ago, despite billions in subsidies to the renewable energy sector? Statistics Canada data suggest so. But the province maintains it gets a growing share of its power from the wind and the sun, and that — just as a growing push for climate policies would seem to call for meticulous monitoring of renewable energy — the numbers coming out of Ottawa are simply wrong.

In the past few years, thanks to generous provincial incentives, homeowners and power companies have blanketed rooftops and farmers’ fields with solar panels, and forested farm fields across the countryside with wind turbines. For example…